The admins were right—the event was already over.
Not a single fight happened after day four—peace reigned.
With no major changes in the rankings, day five came to an uneventful close. The
remaining players in the event were swiftly transported back to the main game.
And a few moments later, each player saw a screen pop up in front of them,
displaying the final results.
"Third again!"
"Oh, right, Maple. You were third in the first event, too."
Since all the top ten got the same reward, they hadn't made any special effort to
finish at the top, but the points they'd earned from all the large guilds' orbs had
pushed them several ranks up.
Their screens were now showing the reward.
Every guild member received five silver medals as well as a wooden token. And as
the guild master, Maple received an item for display in their guild home—one that
raised the stats of all members by 5 percent.
Maple put all these in her inventory, then took the token out again, looking it over.
"Access Permit: V… Hmm…"
Her name appeared in fine print below those words.
Clearly, these couldn't be passed around.
"These'll probably be used on the next stratum. Should be quite a while before we
get a chance to use 'em, though," Sally said, putting her token away. "That aside…
Maple, good work out there."
"You too, Sally!"
All Maple Tree members took a moment to congratulate one another, then they
headed back to their guild home.
Maple suggested they have a party to celebrate their victory. Everyone was on board
with that idea, so they picked a date and a venue—the Maple Tree home.
Iz had maxed her Cooking skill out, so the food was insane.
But when the promised hour arrived, everyone was there—except Maple.
"She ran out to buy something and never came back. Maybe I shoulda gone with
her…"
"Yeah… if you leave her on her own, she'll just wander off."
Right as Sally stood up to go look for her, the door opened. Maple was back.
She had brought some surprising guests.
"I'm hooome!"
"Oh, there you are, Maple. What's all this?"
Sally peered over Maple's shoulder at none other than the leaders of the Order and
Flame Empire.
Maple answered her question with great cheer.
"I bumped into them outside, and after we chatted for a bit, I somehow ended up
friending them all and invited them over! This is exactly like how, you know, all the
strong characters in stories always know one another! Apparently, I'm strong now!"
"Uh, right."
Maple had opened up her friends list. Just like she said, it had all members of Maple
Tree, the four leaders of the Order of the Holy Sword, and the four leaders of Flame
Empire listed.
Sally knew full well what other players thought about Maple and definitely saw this
"friendship" in a different light.
It was a list that would make any last boss run screaming.
Iz handled the extra company in style, pumping out even more dishes.
Maple Tree only had eight members, so they had room for many more.
While everyone was enjoying the feast, they got a message from the admins.
It had a video attached.
"Let's put it up on the guild screen! We all got the same video."
Maple hopped up and fiddled with the big screen until she got the video playing.
It was a highlight reel of the event.
And almost all the footage was of people present.
First Pain, then Mii—then it cut to Sally.
"Oh! This was the night… when I screwed up…," Frederica wailed.
"If I hadn't been so tired, I'd have taken you out myself," Sally said.
Frederica looked hurt. "I'm not that easy!"
"Wanna go again, then?"
"Anytime! This time I'll hit you! I won't miss!"
And then it showed Maple.
"Still in human form."
"We know she's actually seven monsters."
Dread and Drag both shared blank stares as they rattled off those comments.
Chrome was the only one among the boys who hadn't died, so this was a hard video
for them to watch. Kanade had somehow placed himself on the girl's side of the
room, where he fit right in.
"Just thinking about it hurts," Marx muttered. It might be a while before he
recovered.
Near the end, it was showing Chrome using his abnormal healing rate and Cover
Move to warp around while guarding Mai, Yui, Iz, and Kanade. The glares he was
getting screamed I thought you were the normal one.
"We'll win next time," Pain declared. "I'm not one to let a loss stand. And we know
your skills intimately now."
"Man," Chrome said. "You take your eyes off her a second and she comes back as a
furball that can turn into a monster. You really think you can take Maple so easily?"
"The first step is to get better at expecting the unexpected. Seeing her transform like
that definitely threw me."
Pain planned to start by figuring out how to deal with her existing skills. This time
Maple had emerged victorious, but who knew what the future might bring. And if
nothing else, Pain definitely had the power to go toe to toe with her.
780 Name: Anonymous Great Shielder
Yo
781 Name: Anonymous Spear Master
Saw the vid.
782 Name: Anonymous Archer
We've been calling her the walking fortress and the defensive beast but now she's a
running fortress and literally a beast.
What are you even supposed to do?
783 Name: Anonymous Greatsworder
Just the other day she was human, too.
Whatever she was on the inside.
784 Name: Anonymous Great Shielder
Take your eyes off her one second… and she grows like crazy.
785 Name: Anonymous Mage
How do you grow into artillery guns and full-body replacement?
Explain, please.
786 Name: Anonymous Great Shielder
Legit bolt from the blue stuff.
She goes off on her own for the day and bam, comes back extra.
787 Name: Anonymous Spear Master
Only extra? Not ultra? Lolll.
788 Name: Anonymous Greatsworder
Definitely hitting spontaneous mutation levels. Uncanny!
789 Name: Anonymous Archer
But nobody in Maple Tree is normal.
When I saw you in action, I knew.
790 Name: Anonymous Great Shielder
Yeah?
791 Name: Anonymous Archer
Yup.
You were only pretending to be human, Chrome.
792 Name: Anonymous Greatsworder
Maple's so nuts you look regular by comparison, but…
Still, even with that in mind, Sally and the twins are 100% on the side of cray.
793 Name: Anonymous Mage
I got run over by y'all once.
Just found myself flying through the night air, no warning.
794 Name: Anonymous Archer
A front line that throws metal balls
That's Maple DNA
Clearly not quick on their feet tho
795 Name: Anonymous Spear Master
Right.
They aren't as bad as her, though.
796 Name: Anonymous Great Shielder
They're what happens when Professor Maple gives kids pointers.
She got them there in one day.
797 Name: Anonymous Greatsworder
Whaa—?
Is Mapleness catching?
798 Name: Anonymous Mage
Clearly!
Chrome's infected.
799 Name: Anonymous Spear Master
Judging by that vid, absolutely.
Kasumi's the only one who hasn't changed up her gear.
Your back line's pretty wild, too.
800 Name: Anonymous Greatsworder
But you'd still stand a chance one-on-one.
It's the others who are really scary.
801 Name: Anonymous Great Shielder
For real, is there anyone who could take Sally head-on?
I went up against her in the guild training room, but that was not happening.
802 Name: Anonymous Archer
Is she just dodging?
The vids make it look like she's got more going on.
803 Name: Anonymous Great Shielder
There's rumors, but I think they're just rumors?
Nobody can hit her. That's all.
804 Name: Anonymous Greatsworder
Speaking of Maple Tree rumors… or talk.
That's all you hear out there. The event highlight reel hit everyone too hard.
805 Name: Anonymous Spear Master
People are calling day three "Armageddon" or "the Apocalypse."
806 Name: Anonymous Great Shielder
'Cause of the clones?
No way to do that solo!
807 Name: Anonymous Archer
Not much difference between no hope and a faint hope.
808 Name: Anonymous Mage
When Pain actually hurt Maple, I was relieved the concept of HP applies to her.
809 Name: Anonymous Spear Master
But how'd she get that?
Why's she have a last stand skill?
Someone actually hurt her before?
810 Name: Anonymous Great Shielder
Sure.
Not just one, either.
But with her current VIT, probably not happening again.
811 Name: Anonymous Archer
It went up again?
Wasn't it already more than she could ever need?
812 Name: Anonymous Great Shielder
She said she's almost at five digits.
I regretted asking.
Almost fainted on the spot.
813 Name: Anonymous Greatsworder
that's like 100 times my STR
why
814 Name: Anonymous Mage
You get to that point and I can see why you might not want to ever raise anything
else.
815 Name: Anonymous Archer
As long as she's having fun!
Honestly if she raised other stats, who the hell would be able to handle it?
Like, just running at regular speeds would be a massive power-up.
816 Name: Anonymous Great Shielder
I can't tell if she's spared a thought to efficiency or not.
817 Name: Anonymous Mage
I'd wager she's that strong because she's not thinking at all
818 Name: Anonymous Spear Master
Normal thoughts wouldn't lead to the furball parade float
819 Name: Anonymous Archer
The one image from post–day four
820 Name: Anonymous Greatsworder
The hard cut from Empire's battling to that just blew my mind